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Saudi Arabian Mathematical Competitions

Geometry Difficulty 6.1 National Olympiad Prove it Saudi Arabia

Let ABCABC be a triangle with B^≥2C^\widehat{B} \geq 2 \widehat{C}. Denote by DD the foot of the altitude from AA and by MM the midpoint of BCBC. Prove that DM≥AB2DM \geq \frac{AB}{2}.

Solution

Figure 1
Denote by a,b,ca, b, c the length sides of triangle ABCABC. In triangle ADMADM we have
DM2=AM2−AD2=2(b2+c2)−a24−4K2a2=2(b2+c2)−a24−16K24a2 \begin{gathered} DM^{2} = AM^{2} - AD^{2} = \frac{2\left(b^{2} + c^{2}\right) - a^{2}}{4} - \frac{4K^{2}}{a^{2}} \\ = \frac{2\left(b^{2} + c^{2}\right) - a^{2}}{4} - \frac{16K^{2}}{4a^{2}} \end{gathered}
=2(b2+c2)−a24−14a2(2∑a2b2−∑a4)=14a2(−2b2c2+b4+c4)=(b2−c22a)2 \begin{gathered} = \frac{2\left(b^{2} + c^{2}\right) - a^{2}}{4} - \frac{1}{4a^{2}}\left(2 \sum a^{2}b^{2} - \sum a^{4}\right) \\ = \frac{1}{4a^{2}}\left(-2b^{2}c^{2} + b^{4} + c^{4}\right) = \left(\frac{b^{2} - c^{2}}{2a}\right)^{2} \end{gathered}
Since B^≥2C^>C^\widehat{B} \geq 2\widehat{C} > \widehat{C}, it follows b>cb > c, hence
DM=b2−c22a \begin{equation*} DM = \frac{b^{2} - c^{2}}{2a} \tag{1} \end{equation*}
The inequality DM≥AB2DM \geq \frac{AB}{2} is equivalent to b2−c22a≥c2\frac{b^{2} - c^{2}}{2a} \geq \frac{c}{2}, that is b2≥c2+acb^{2} \geq c^{2} + ac. Using the cosine law, the last inequality becomes a≥2ccos⁡B+ca \geq 2c \cos B + c, or sin⁡A≥2sin⁡Ccos⁡B+sin⁡C\sin A \geq 2 \sin C \cos B + \sin C. We can write sin⁡(B+C)≥2sin⁡Ccos⁡B+sin⁡C\sin(B + C) \geq 2 \sin C \cos B + \sin C, hence sin⁡(B−C)≥sin⁡C\sin(B - C) \geq \sin C, and we get 2sin⁡B−2C2cos⁡B2≥02 \sin \frac{B - 2C}{2} \cos \frac{B}{2} \geq 0. This inequality is true because B^≥2C^\widehat{B} \geq 2\widehat{C}, and we are done.

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